The creator of a good show should see the whole picture from the beginning. The high level idea and structure are crucial to make your investment efficient, productive and worthwhile.
Structure is the most important element of a show, and can make or break it. You should get things down from outline to first draft as fast as possible so you can examine the whole and understand where more work is needed.
The only way to know if something works is to try it. I believe feedback in the form of audience testing should be sought very early in the creation process.
Everyone has their own subjective and artistic opinion, but when 80% of your audience tells you something doesn't work - it is evidence, not subjective truth. Reviewing your work with fresh audiences regularly and early on can be a big difference for understanding if you're going in the right direction or not.
However, even though people can often tell when something is wrong, they will not be able to tell you how to fix it - that is my job as an artist.
One of my biggest goals as an artist is to innovate. I want to create new theatrical experiences, new musical styles, and new ways of story telling that truly bring a new definition to the word "musical". I hope to be part of the next step in the evolution of musicals.
"Good artists copy, great artists steal"
Copy. Transform. Combine. These are the elements of creation. Even the most innovative creations starts by copying previous works. I believe in the study of the work of artist s that inspire me, and using what I learned in my own works, as well as finding what I can transform or combine in order to get something new.
Ever since the beginning, musical theatre always took inspiration from the popular music of that time. Today, with the accessibility media via the internet, popular music is evolving fast and is more diverse than ever. I believe that pop music, across all of its genres, should be an inspiration for the style of music used in modern musical theatre, which is why I make a special point of studying both musical theatre and pop music.
From the time when the musical instrument was not even mentioned, to the extremely detailed sound design capabilities of modern tech - we have come a long way. The sound of today's music is more often than not - at the center. That's why I believe arrangement, production and sound design are important elements in the creation of compelling and interesting music for the modern audience, and should be involved in the beginning, even if it means challenging traditional creation practices.